Thrift store finds and crafty things from the butt-end of Europe

Tag Archives: Paris

Did you see my Paris Instagram Art? Of course you did. Well, if you want to make some for yourself, you can download the images here for free. Hope you like them! The links to the downloads are below each image. Free for personal use only but they are okay to make as gifts!

Couple of weeks ago my friend was visiting me and we reorganized my bedroom. Amidst this hassle, I showed my various thrift store finds including a set Disney Princess- wall art pieces. I enthusiastically (spitting and spastically waving hands) explained that I planned to make them into either Christmas or Halloween art pieces, just haven’t decided which one yet. Then he asked “how about for once making something that you could use all year round?”.

These are the originals. They are about 1 cm thick MDF and the images are paper. These types of kids’ wall art are easy to find at thrift stores and flea markets. If I remember correctly, I paid 1 euro each for these.

I didn’t sand or prime the images but I did skimp on the spray paint. I had forgotten that the one sold at Prisma is cheap BUT HAS AN AWFUL COVERAGE! Save yourself some trouble and invest on good quality spray paint.

You don’t have to spray paint the entire thing. Just the edges. In the end I had to do three coats to hide most of the pink, however the princesses were still visible but it doesn’t matter as they will be hidden under the whatever image you use.

Selecting the images and editing them took the longest. I used a mix of my Instagram-photos and ones I’ve taken with my camera but had edited using free Instagram-filters for Photoshop. I don’t remember where I got mine but THIS looks like a good set. I then made all the images 27x27cm because I wanted to have a small white border on the art pieces. I then had them laser printed at the local library on A3 paper. In my neck of woods, they are 40 cents a piece. I printed 10, just to have some choice.

The best way to trim is with an x-acto knife and using a mat but in a pinch, scissors are OK too. I had to trim a little extra because the library machine re-scaled my carefully designed pieces to fit the paper. It added an extra cm on each side but it was nothing too tricky to fix.

To attach the images on the painted MDF-pieces, I used regular paper glue stick. You only need to spread it on the edges. After laying the glued images on the MDF, use your sleeve to carefully remove air bubbles or wrinkles. Do this to all the pieces and voilà, you have beautiful art to admire! Here are the finished pieces:

Some tips…Instagram photos have enough picture quality for this kind of art. Even though close by there’s pixellation, the whole IG-filter thing makes images blurry so it works with the style. If possible, choose a satin finish paper for printing. There was no choice at my local library but if you use a print shop, you should have options.

Artist signs at various museums in Paris. They are delightful little things. Someone made a living painting them. Was he on the museum’s pay roll or perhaps an independent contractor? “François, hurry up will you?”

You can find more interpretations of this week’s theme HERE. If you want to see all of my challenge entries, they are HERE.

Sometimes I wonder how much really has changed for women. It seems that our lot is just to endure whatever men and powers to be throw at us. It has always been this way and will be so for the unforeseeable future unless we actually start doing something about it.

This week’s photo challenge theme is ‘Endurance‘. Rest of the interpretations can be found HERE. My earlier challenge entries are HERE.

Humans are rather clever creatures. Eons ago someone figured how to control fire. No more shivering and being afraid in the dark. The darkness could be pushed away! Eons ago someone decided to co-operate with some of the friendlier wolves and now we have dogs! Eons ago they worshipped fat ladies and made dildos! Eons ago they knew how to live!

Oh, how many great things have humans figured out. There must have been first person to use something we would call make-up, after losing a mate to the Urgh in the neighbouring cave. Tools! Did the first hammer user curse as much as we do today after hitting one’s own finger?

All those small discoveries made with the help of large cranium and opposable thumbs became all the fantastic things we call arts and sciences. We truly are a special species among species. There’s just one slight design flaw that ruins it all…

Tendency to bend at knees.

This is my entry to this week’s photo challengeHumanity. If you are interested, rest of the interpretations are HERE and my other challenge photos are HERE.